Hygiene, not the minty breath and clean hands type of hygiene, but the classic Herzberg/Maslow hygiene. Though we get the latest digital updates of Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, or Who Moved My Cheese, I talk of the hygiene both Maslow and Herzberg separately espouse as the foundation discussion that began with these modern management theorists, and of names anyone in people-related roles (see: everyone) should familiarize themselves with:

Abraham Maslow

Frederick Herzberg and his famous work Bernard Mausner and Barabara Bloch Snyderman

Douglas McGregor

Elton Mayo, and

Mary Parker Follett

These humanistic thinkers are in direct contrast to their mechanistic contemporaries:

Frederick Winslow Taylor,

Henry Ford, and

Alfred Sloan

Again, though written in 2010, this blog still resonates. I should say, management theories written by folks a half a century ago, that I refer to, still carry the day.

Most everything we do in organizations today is through a project and projects either: improve something that exists or create something new, so either require a lot of communication. Communication is critical, so how can we cut through the clutter and communicate: TWITTER!

Twitter is my 140 character noise filter. I feel this 2010 post still has reader response as the post combines both social media trends with tactical ways to manage projects as with resources available to anyone within any size organization.

Culture. Talked a lot about, but rarely with an intentional effort to map, modify, or address.

This post has caught some nice attention and both cited and noted in a new book, which is nice. Why the attraction? Well, every decade, the the Fortune 500 turnover 50% of their companies. The answers could keep a Board of Directors or CEO up at night.

This blog, again written in 2010, took very little research to find the turnover. 2 of my sources are great influences of mine: MIT Sloan School of Management professor, Peter Senge, who presented the average life of a Fortune 500 company is 30 years and Jim Collins, author of Built to Last, who notes only 71 companies on the original 1955 Fortune 500 list are there today.

Change is constant, it is a mantra I carry forward. Change without diagnostic inquiry remains only as effective as the doctor who asks about the entire well-being of the patient, lasting change has to begin with well-crafted appreciative inquiry.